WEBVTT

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OK.

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I will read now from
"Nine Alexandrias."

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Same publisher and
same translator.

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First I will read a
couple of poems from--

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fragments from long poem.

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The title "Nine Alexandrias", I
wrote that poem during my trip

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by train from Alexandria,
Virginia to Los Angeles

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and the back seven days
after September 11.

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"Nine Alexandrias."

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Maybe that isn't all of them,
but the way I figure it,

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there are at least nine cities
in America called Alexandria.

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Cartography of the
new had to be based

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on the principle of
tracing the old world

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through an ocean of indigo.

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The only thing that makes my
trip across country manageable

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is this.

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Going from one
Alexandria to another,

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I can't help but get
to the same city.

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And only by knowing for
sure that the world is still

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in one piece can
I imagine moving

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from one American
Alexandria to another

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on the same Egyptian dock.

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